t entry spot for the Chinese immigrants entering the United States. “The city of San Francisco also housed the largest Chinatown in America” (Takaki 30). Chinatown was hardly the place anyone would want to be. But because of prejudice and lack of resources, it was difficult for Chinese to obtain housing outside of Chinatown. It was an overcrowded ghetto with deteriorating living conditions. In many instances, families shared one room. “More than three-quarters of the residences had no heating and more than four-fifths failed to meet San Francisco’s housing Standards” (Takaki 53). It would be these conditions that would ultimately lead to the turnaround of Chinatown. After hearing that people were living under such inhumane conditions, many people were drawn to Chinatown to see for themselves. Chinatown had become a tourist attraction. Tourism brought money to Chinatown. During the San Francisco earthquake, Chinatown was destroyed and was rebuilt from the ground up. It would be afterwards that Chinatown would really become the major tourist attraction that it still to this day. With the sudden destruction of San Francisco’s immigration records, the door was opened for more Chinese immigration. Chinese men living here were claiming to be born in the U.S. making them citizens. Since the records were destroyed, the local authorities had no way to prove otherwise. And since they were now considered U.S. citizens, they were allowed by law to bring their families over from China. Before the earthquake there were very few Chinese females in the U.S. After the earthquake, there was a tremendous increase in Chinese females. “More than 10,000 Chinese women entered the United States between 1907 and 1924” (Chan 31). That alone increased the female population to 20 percent. In attempts to handle the new overflow of Chinese immigrants, in 1910, the government established Angel Isl...
